Affect of short period renting between mortgages?

ilikewatch2

Hi, would appreciate people's opinions on the following scenario:

My wife and I are hoping to move house later this year. In order to reduce the stress of being in the middle of a chain and ensure we don't feel under pressure to find a property to buy we were considering planning to move into rented when we sell our house (unless we happen to find a perfect property to buy whilst marketing our current home).

I'm starting to wonder if this is a good idea, if we sell our home and move to rented it will mean a lot of changes to our credit history in a short period of time:

- Current mortgage settled
- Credit referencing by new letting agent
- Utility accounts being closed and new ones opened
- Electoral Register may have not updated by the time we apply for new mortgage 

So, would all the above changes be a red flag to a lender when we find our new home and apply for a mortgage? Or are they used to this sort of thing?

K_S

@ilikewatch2 It's not an uncommon scenario and I haven't had any problems placing my clients who were renting between a house move.

ilikewatch2

K_S said:

@ilikewatch2 It's not an uncommon scenario and I haven't had any problems placing my clients who were renting between a house move.

That's reassuring, thanks!

Thrugelmir

Are there plenty of suitable rentals in your locality?  You still face the challenge of securing one while selling your existing property. 

ilikewatch2

Thrugelmir said:

Are there plenty of suitable rentals in your locality?  You still face the challenge of securing one while selling your existing property. 

Well, looking today there seems to be loads of rental properties around - both "proper" ones listed with EA's and the "cash only, no DSS" variety in local shop windows - it's a long time since I've rented, but since most of our belongings will be going into storage we're quite flexible with what we could manage with in the short term.

dimbo61

Six months is the shortest tenancy contract and with all the current problems around the pandemic and serving S21 many Landlords will want long term tenants.
London seems to have alot of rental properties available due to Covid19 and shops, pubs, clubs and entertainment venues being shut

ilikewatch2

dimbo61 said:

Six months is the shortest tenancy contract and with all the current problems around the pandemic and serving S21 many Landlords will want long term tenants.
London seems to have alot of rental properties available due to Covid19 and shops, pubs, clubs and entertainment venues being shut

Ah, this is where my knowledge is lacking - last time I rented a property (17 years ago!) every tenancy I saw was for 6 months - is it now "usual" for a tenancy agreement to be for a longer period? 

Emmia

A year is more common than 6 months...

ilikewatch2

Emmia said:

A year is more common than 6 months...

Thanks - I've had a quick look, and although most rightmove listings don't mention a minimum term I've seen a couple which do specify 6 months so hopefully I'll be OK if I do need to rent.

amandacat

I sold to move into rental last month. Despite there being lots of available properties listed on Rightmove, when I called they were nearly all under reference but the status not updated. When I did get viewings, about 5 other people applied for the property and the landlord would take their pick and I kept missing out. So many estate agents also didn’t even bother calling me back. 

I finally found a rental and the landlord pulled out just as I was about to sign the contract. I’d already exchanged and couldn’t get somewhere else in time and ended up moving in with family and all my furniture is in storage. 

I’m not trying to scare you and things may be less crazy towards the end of the year but I wanted to share my experience as it was stressful and I’m still with family. 

It has worked out in some ways though as we’ve found a house to buy instead. We were in a good position with nothing to sell and our first offer was accepted. Despite being told we won’t go onto the electoral roll in March when we got our letters after asking to go on the roll, our broker has still been able to do our mortgage application and this hasn’t presented an issue so far.